Vaia
Vaia (vah-yah) is an apostate mercenary of Chasind extraction. She lived on the run for most of her life after being forced in to exile at a young age. A born survivor, she adapted to the life of a fugitive by becoming a hard, uncompromising woman. Character Profile Profile here. Changes to Appearance Relationships Fiagaí ... Aled Parry ... Galbraith Devlin ... Ser Cullen ... Paige Langley ... Siorus Cadigan ... Plots and Threads Past Threads *This Spell's Disaster (9:16 Dragon): Vaia, aged 10, manifests magical ability for the first time to save her friend, Fiagaí. When her abilities are discovered, Vaia is taken as a sacrifice to the Witches of the Wilds. *Better Plucky Than Witch (9:16 Dragon): Vaia's brother, Unegen, frees Vaia after she is left as an offering. *Not A Good Idea (9:29 Dragon): Vaia encounters Paige in the midst of the Blight, and shows her a thing or two about wilderness survival. 9:32 Dragon Wintermarch *Build Two Pyres (Wintermarch 19 - 23): Vaia tracks her brother's suspected killer - her childhood friend, Fiagaí - to a cave in the Wilds. A blizzard leaves her trapped there with him, along with Devlin and Aled. Quarters are close and emotions run high, drawing the attentions of another, more sinister visitor. *Fear and Lothering (Wintermarch 26): Ser Cullen returns to Lothering with two willing prisoners: Devlin, in despair after forcing lyrium on Fiagaí; and Vaia, who fears she may yet give in to her demon's words. Realizing that only death or Tranquility await the mage should she turn herself in, Devlin strikes a bargain. *Scorched Earth (Wintermarch 28 - Guardian 26): Devlin and Vaia hole up in an abandoned farmhouse near Lostwhithiel in an attempt to break Devlin's lyrium addiction. Drakonis *How To Disappear Completely(Drakonis 1 - 5): After a month-long ordeal, Devlin is free of lyrium. Neither he nor Vaia is quite the same, though, and their initially cautious alliance is developing in to something more. *Third Time's the Charm (Drakonis 5): Vaia and Devlin's growing, mutual attraction - and one shot too many of bad whiskey - leads them to seek comfort in each other's arms. *Eviction Notice (Drakonis 7 - 8): Devlin and Vaia attempt their own Harrowing, hoping to cast Vaia's demon out once and for all. *I Slept, and Dreamed That Life Was Beauty (Drakonis 8 - 11): After her abrupt departure, Vaia ruminates on Devlin as she travels alone to Denerim. *I Woke, and Found That Life Was Duty (Drakonis 13): Vaia, feeling aimless and lost, finds a cause to give herself purpose. *Caught In The Act (Drakonis 20): Vaia goes to the Mage's Collective to find work, and re-encounters an old acquaintance. *Insufficient Notice (Drakonis 21): Vaia, Paige, Siorus, and Castien attempt to resolve a dispute between the Mage's Collective and a mercenary band. *School of Hard Shocks (Drakonis 22): Vaia tutors Paige in the basics of Primal magic. *Close Encounters of the Worst Kind (Drakonis 27): Ser Cullen confronts Vaia as to the whereabouts of his rogue templar brother, Devlin. *I Should Go (Drakonis 28): Fearing further templar attention, Vaia says goodbye to Paige before fleeing Denerim. Cloudreach *Fancy Seeing You Here (Cloudreach 12 - 13): Vaia re-encounters Fiagaí and Aled in Highever. Upon hearing that Vaia needs lyrium to print her political tract, Aled makes her an offer. *No Good Deed Goes Unpunished (Cloudreach 15): Fiagaí and Vaia try to catch up, but a fundamental disagreement puts the two exiled Wilders - and Devlin - in harm's way. *Take the Future From Your Hands (Cloudreach 15): After being arrested by the templars, Fiagaí and Vaia are left to speculate on their fate. *Primitive Notion (Cloudreach 16): With Vaia facing the rite of Tranquility, Fiagaí takes decisive action; the consequences, however, are beyond what even he expected. *Dungeons and Delinquents (Cloudreach 16): Zevran brings Fiagaí and Vaia news as they wait in the dungeon of Castle Cousland. *Kings of the World (Cloudreach 18): On the ship from Highever to Amaranthine, Anders pays a visit to Fiagaí and Vaia in the brig. *Vanishing Point (Cloudreach 19): In progress. Alternate Universe Mass Effect AU Mercenary!Devlin and Spectre!Vaia.......... IN SPACE. * Dark Matters * End of the Line * Nobody Lost, Nobody Found Related Characters and Organizations In case anyone is strapped for character ideas, I guess. The Argent Rooks * the mercenary group that vaia has spent the majority of her life with - she has sixteen years of history with them * they count many apostates amongst their number, but they also take non nonmagi who don't balk with working with apostates * the name itself is a bit of wordplay alluding to their nature ** their coat of arms bears a rook - the bird - in white, and each member has a tattoo of such a bird in flight somewhere on their person (the back or upper arm is common, but it's not something they regulate) ** of course, the word 'rook' has an alternate meaning, referring to the chess piece resembling a tower. im sure you see where this is going * not an exceptionally large group, and they're fairly close knit - almost a necessity, banding together gives apostates some measure of safety * officially they take a hard-line stance against blood magic; anyone found practicing it would be expelled at the very least. in general, they are fairly scrupulous as mercs go. this is partly business practice and partly to avoid attracting too much attention from one of their number flipping out and going abomination * they have ties to the Mages' Collective; often the Rooks have recruited new members through those channels * at age 10 Vaia was adopted by one of their number, Ambrose - a middle-aged city elf apostate who was an escaped circle mage * he taught her to control her abilities and in exchange she joined the camp followers in the sort of noncombat chores that keep the company running smoothly - maintaining arms and armor, cooking, doing the washing, etc etc * at age 18 or so she signed on as a full member and has since been frying people for a living The Cougar Clan * her father, Nasan ** the shaman of the Cougar Clan ** a stern and traditional man who, nevertheless, ultimately seems to have the interests of his clan at heart ** dutiful and honorable ** a hawkish-looking sort - vaia inherited his hard angular profile and grey eyes * the middle brother, Unegen ** deceased ** despite him being three older than vaia they were quite close, and unegen was very protective of her ** he helped her escape when she was to be sacrificed and they kept in touch even after her exile * the elder brother, Chinua ** also displayed magical talent, but as a male he was allowed to apprentice as a shaman under his father ** he knew about unegen aiding in vaia's escape, but turned a blind eye to that and his younger brother's keeping in touch with vaia ** after the death of unegen, chinua tracked vaia down to give her the news, but told vaia in no uncertain terms that she was never to return to the clan * her mother hasn't been elaborated on much, nor others in her family, but presumably they do (or did) exist. it's been a good sixteen years since she's seen any of them, of course, and eight since she's been able to hear any news of them Category:Characters Category:Character Profile Category:Mage Category:Apostate Category:Chasind Category:Characters Category:Character Profile Category:Mage Category:Apostate Category:Chasind